Moyne council rejects Gipps St waterfront plans

Opponents of a waterfront development in Port Fairy say they are pleased with the council's unanimous decision to reject the application at a meeting last night.

Locals are unhappy the developer was awarded land that had previously been used by the public, under an adverse possession claim.

The Moyne Shire Council received about 60 written objections, and a petition, to plans to build a house on the site.

Resident John Konnings was one of the four people who presented the community's objections about the Gipps Street development to the council last night.

"I was concerned that there was so much community opposition to this proposal and and a lot of these things have developed very bureaucratic processes for community participation," he said.

Mr Konings says the community is pleased with the decision to reject the application.

He says locals have a number of objections to the development, including that the land is now privately owned.

"The key reason is that they have ... viewed the subject land as being basically public land or land that was owned by the council, so they've used it for fishing, boating access for years and they were very surprised that the issue of private ownership and development came up on the land," he said.

Mayor James Purcell says the council is prepared to go to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.